Being Smarter

OK, before you shout – but I’ve got Outlook, why would I even consider another piece of task manager software, my answer is simple… work and home lives are interchangeable these days, Outlook and Exchange server are for work lives only.

How often do you find that you need to add ‘home’ tasks to your list when you are at work and vice versa? Outlook is normally not accessible just when you need it.

In addition, can your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend/cousin/son/daughter add tasks to your todo list in Outlook? Not easily…

Remember the Milk is a fast-growing web 2.0 application which according to them is “The best way to manage your tasks online”.

ADD IMAGE

You can have multiple types of list, representing the main things going on in your life and in addition, each task can then be tagged to show you a tag cloud of what’s facing you.

The AJAX style interface is simple and intuitive to use and it follows you everywhere there is an internet connected PC.

Adding tasks is so simple… the application intelligently figures things out – ie “must call the doctors next tuesday” will translate to must call the doctors, and the correct date assigned automatically…

When you’re not in the office (or someone else would like to assign you a task remotely) then simply email the task to a predefined address and it will then appear within your task lists ready for action.

There are so many other pieces of functionality to mention it would take too long, and so the best thing to do is to go here, register and have a go.

I have been and still am an avid Outlook user, but for task manager software, I’ve been using RTM for a couple of months now, and haven’t looked back…

This problem relates to the insert key on your keyboard. It can come in handy when you really do what to overtype something, however nine times out of ten, you knock it by mistake and it serves no real purpose over than to annoy you and waste time.

You can disable the insert key when you are using Word 2003 or Word 2000. Richt click a blank area of the main Word toolbar and select “customise”. Then click the “commands” tab. Click the “keyboard” button and choose “All commands” in the “Categories” box on the left. In the “Commands” box, scroll down to “Overtype” and select this command. You’ll see “Insert” listed as the “Current key”. Click this and then click the “Remove” button.

Job done – no more annoying ‘insert by accident’ moments.

This is a cool app for Windows XP (I suspect it will work on Vista, but I’ve not tested it.)

The applet is called MiniMIZE and it does one thing only – when you minimise a window, it will be turned into a thumbnail and displayed on your desktop, as opposed to languishing on the taskbar, keeping the taskbar clutter-free.

It looks like this:

… and can be downloaded here.

How many times have you forgotten your bosses/son’s/wife’s/boyfriends anniversary/birthday/wedding*? Without being too sexist – if you’re a guy probably loads of times, if you’re a girl – I suspect far fewer. That said, we can all do with a little help on Being Smarter when it comes to reminders etc.

Amazon lets your schedule reminders for important events via their special occasions section.

Click here, then click the Create Reminder button and set yourself as many reminders as you could wish for, which are all emailed to your registered Amazon address (as opposed to being cluttered up in your task list) at the time you ask for. Of course there’s a chance they may want you to buy  a gift from their store..?

If you don’t currently have mobile broadband access and you are out the office a lot, with a need for data, I suspect you spend a good deal of time working from coffee bars and taking advantage of their wifi access, free or otherwise.

Before you head out next time, it’s worth checking out Trustive – an excellent resource which has over 30000 hotspots plotted across 75 countries on a Google Map. Very cool.

They do a pretty good deal on wifi credits too which is definitely woth investigating.

They have also just released a dedicated site for iPhone users too to find wifi hotspots if you don’t have 3G coverage.